Hello there!
I am Lena from Austria, beautiful home of dark rye bread and Semmeln.
I work as a chemist and love to cook in my free time. I took to backing two years ago and stayed mostly with making my own baguettes.
Since my son was born two years ago time became scarce and I wanted to get some help with kneeding when baking. A friend recommended the assistant and while looking for information on it, I found this forum.
And what can I say, I stayed for all the gorgeous bread and the great community. I mean, you even have a recipe for Cornetti, which I never found in Austria and we are right next to Italy!
I don't think I can contribute much at this time, but if you want to know anything about Austrian breads, don't hesitate to ask! I do make a quite decent Apfelstrudel ;)
Hi & welcome to the forum. I am sure that your Austrian bread knowledge will be much appreciated.
One thing that you might enjoy here are the community bakes, in which participants all bake the same kind of bread in order to boost the community's understanding of it. The current community bake is pizza; some typical examples from the past are oat porridge bread and 5-grain levain. Community bakes are usually organized by DanAyo perhaps every 6-8 weeks.
Nobody is obliged to participate in community bakes (I haven't for the current one due to travel), but if you like the idea, then feel free to join. In any case, happy baking!
Thank you!
The community bakes sound like the perfect opportunity to try something new. Which is perfect because I really just bake quite simple white breads.
As an Austrian-born (Linz) member here on the forum, I can vouch for the great information this site offers. You will love it! Cheers, Ingrid
Where are you living now? I work for a metallurgical consulting company so I am quite a few times in Linz.
A completely different way of living and in a subtropical climate.
But I heard so many good things about Australia and the people living there. Also there was quite some emigration from Austria to Australia some decades ago, I still have relatives there :).
But the most important question is of course, how is the food there?
Since we have 170+ nationalities living together, the varieties of food is incredible.
Apparently, according to the foodies, we are now leaders in culinary things. Sounds great anyway.
We live close to the ocean with fresh seafood aplenty, etc. Have you heard of the MasterChef TV series? If you get a chance, watch some of it. You weill be enlightened.
I lived in Salzburg for two years and still love it. Have visited many times.
Welcome and what a nice message you've posted. I've never been to Austria, but love reading about its breads. And we love that dark rye. German as well.
I did make an austrian beef stew that used lots of sweet and hot paprika. It was fantastic.
Take care,
Bruce
Sounds like Gulasch. Stew in Austria, soup in Hungary (where it originates) :D. Also great but not so widely known is Szegediner Gulasch which is made with pork instead of beef and additional sauerkraut.
I have a question. I'm looking to bake a Vollkornbrot, and one recipe states that it's Viennese, which uses all whole wheat.
The other recipe uses all rye.
Do you eat Vollkornbrot there? And if so, which flour do you use?
I thought about merging them together.
Thanks!
There are different types. Vollkornbrot is normally with whole wheat or entirely from whole wheat. Some versions have rye added but mostly not whole grain rye.
Then there is rye Vollkornbrot, also known as dunkles Roggenbrot. This bread is made entirely from rye and a part of the rye flour is whole grain. It has a much denser crumb.
What bread do you want to try? Do you prefer a lighter or tenser crumb?
Is Viennese bread enriched? Because Vollkornbrot isn't. If you like, I can translate a formular, of you tell me your preferences.
We have an awfull lot of different breads here. I will take a picture the next time I am at the shop :D
Thanks so much for all the info! It helps a lot. I have a good looking recipe from bernard clayton, but was unsure of its authenticity. Whenever I question bernard clayton, it gets me into trouble haha.
Don't go to much trouble but if you happen to run across a recipe there I would appreciate you passing it along. Doesn't matter on the density.
I dearly love both whole wheat and rye. The dark, hearty, rich, boldness of your European bread. And quite a few folks around me that love it as well.
I haven't forgotten about you! But I didn't get the recipe from my father till today. I haven't used it myself. When I do, I will update the "one hand full" to hopefully some weight ;)
Mix the sourdough with 250 ml Water till it is quite liquid. After around 4 h mix in the other ingredients. The dough should be quite soft. Adjust the water if necessary. Form your favorite type of bread and let it rise for 6 h or up to 14 h. Bake at 200°C with some Steam for 30 min. After 30 min reduce to 180°C and bake for another hour.
That's the recipe he gave me. He freezes his sourdough and put it out of the freezer one day before bread making. I only have wheat sourdough but will try it with that one the next time I get the chance to do some baking.
As for the wheat whole grain, I am still looking for a recipe :D
Thank you so much! You're the best! I'm jotting this down.. it's sure to be a treasure.
Bread Lee
And here's a Vollkornbierbrot I baked yesterday. Imported German beer. Orange zest, molasses,
Image
fennel. It's 100% rye and a combination austrian/ swedish recipe. Very assertive.
Hi Lena
I LOVE Austria, I was there for the World AIDS conference years ago and fell in love with Vienna and Salzburg. You have wonderful bakeries and the coffee shops in Vienna are incredible.
Welcome to the forums.
Benny
They are, ain't they? I love the atmosphere and the waiters in the coffeeshops. But to be completely honest, I like coffee in Italy more.
I was raised next to Salzburg and went to university in Vienna and too love both citys!
Welcome dear, I hope you will enjoy here
I already enjoy it very much!
This looks great! I love Swedish or Finnish rye too. Very nice, robust flavor.
Surely this is fun and interesting place for bake lovers